the Hand Watering coco thread

[dj3hut1]

scurred Ec meter reads the ec of your feed after mixing your nutrients, i keep mine at about 0.9 for veg then slowly up it to about 1.6 in bloom and i never go over 2.0. ph about 5.8.

definitely great advice. i tried a feeding for my seedlings at 1.0-1.2 ec. WAY too much food. im using pbp. flushed and brought it down to a .8-.9 and theyre truckin along. poor babies... oh well, you know what they say, experience is the best teacher.

peace

 

[generalgrievous]

generalgrievous - that white stuff looks like exactly what's on top of my coco/perlite, i'd also like someone who knows what this is to comment on if it's dangerous and how to get rid of it... Happened to me after extreme humidity & heat - my ventilation failed while I was out of town. (I'm not a hand waterer, I use autopots with a res.)

after 2 more days of staring at this stuff I decided it's algea.... It's growing across the streeks of blueLED light that's reflecting off the Mylar and hitting the top of my pots..... It's little white dots like on river rocks around splashy water..... Not sure if algea is bad.... Only 4 or 5 weeks to go.....

 

[Lapplandish]

I have a quick question about watering cycle. How often is it required? I mean in seedling stage I'm now doing watering every third day, but I don't know is that often enough because I have no previous experiement with coco.

And after the seedling stage in veg is it ok to go every third day or every second? Or is it supposed to be daily watering?

And one important question also! Do I always water with nutrient solution or do I also need correct pH water?

I'm total noob with coco so be easy with me!

here's a link to my grow diary Lapps coco grow

 

[mayorofthdesert]

after 2 more days of staring at this stuff I decided it's algea.... It's growing across the streeks of blueLED light that's reflecting off the Mylar and hitting the top of my pots..... It's little white dots like on river rocks around splashy water..... Not sure if algea is bad.... Only 4 or 5 weeks to go.....

algae is usually green as it's a plant & uses photosynthesis. There are some different color algae that I know of (like red) so I'm sure white is possible, but i wonder if it's just a salt or calcium build up from water evaporation and/or absorbtion? If your using tap water that'd be my guess. From what i've heard algae isn't harmful, I had some (green) in my last grow when i used clear containers. I covered the containers with black plastic to sheild the soil from light, but I don't think the algae would have done anything but eat some nutes. Heck, algae could be the next big thing in flushing!

 

[mayorofthdesert]

I have a quick question about watering cycle. How often is it required? I mean in seedling stage I'm now doing watering every third day, but I don't know is that often enough because I have no previous experiement with coco.

And after the seedling stage in veg is it ok to go every third day or every second? Or is it supposed to be daily watering?

And one important question also! Do I always water with nutrient solution or do I also need correct pH water?

I'm total noob with coco so be easy with me!

here's a link to my grow diary Lapps coco grow

Coco itself has no nutes so 90% of the time I use a nute solution. I may give 2 or 3 water-only feedings spaced through the grow cycle to avoid anything building up, and a thorough flush with pure water at the end, two weeks on water only is a common length of time.

I'm not a hand waterer, I use an autopot system that cycles the watering for me. Seems like once a day is the most common for hand waterers, and every other day being the second most common. I've heard a select few people say twice a day (my guess is less water each feeding, maybe the same total amount as once a day feeders) and a few others say once every three days(maybe soaking 'em?). Temps, humidity, intensity of light, strains, time in the plant's life cycle & other variables all contribute to how much moisture the plants will consume, and that, along with your set up (volume of pots, is the coco mixed with anything, do they sit in trays that retain the run-off?) is what ultimately determines how often & how much is ideal for you to water. Don't let your coco dry out though, at it's driest it should still be a little moist just under the surface.

 

[Bubbles84]

hello everyone! awesome threat!
finally I found my problem: runoff ec was 5.0 - 6.0 :/ my ph go up for 7.3 now after flushing got ec 0.4 like my tap water, but ph stil is 7.3. If i get RO water with ph 5.5 is it good ? or buy ph down ? Regards guys!

 

[twisztdauthorit]

I know coco is supposed to be grown with specific nutes but....

does GH come under that list? I have nutes left over and would rather not spend the cash on new juice if its not needed.(or perhaps just a supplement of Calmag?

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

many times i break some cheap old pots to put in the bottom before i put the coco in.

Just make sure that it's from later than the Ming Dynasty...

mgk

 

[mayorofthdesert]

I know coco is supposed to be grown with specific nutes but....

does GH come under that list? I have nutes left over and would rather not spend the cash on new juice if its not needed.(or perhaps just a supplement of Calmag?

I'm not sure if GH markets any nutes as coco specific, but I think coco specific isn't necessary anyhow. I'm more or less following what GratefulHead lays out in this thread: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=55683
I had great results the first go around using nothing but Advanced's micro and bloom at 6ml/9ml per gallon of RO (Head uses tap) which are basically the same as the GH 3 3 part's micro & bloom. The second go around (different strain) I deviated from the simple feeding program and started messing with other additives. Not entirely sure that the additives are to blame (probably not the products themselves, just my ability to use them - I never adjusted the ratio of micro & bloom when using additives, I only adjusted the amounts to keep the total ppm reasonable) but the plants weren't nearly as happy soI'm going back to simple this time. Not 6/9 the whole way through, but Head's adjusted schedule he lists somewhere in the middle of the thread. It might take you some time to read, but the thread is packed with great info on hows & whys of using non-coco specific nutes for coco.

 

[Bud Bug]

Well to start off with this is my first full coco only grow. I've always just used coco to mix into ProMix HP Usually 50/50 ratio or sometime equal amounts of Coco/PriMix HP/Perlite. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=159978

do check ur PH! - range from 5.8 to 6.1 works really well

I ran it a 6 early but changed to 6.2-6.4 and this seems to have made the plants greener.

do make sure you use nutes specific for coco! - this will give the best results and easy of use.

I'm using Botanicare PBP with CalMag and other additives. Nothing specifically designed for coco usage. From having grown many other plants other then cannabis in coco I say you don't need "coco specific" nutrients. You just have to see how the plants reacts and add calcium accordingly.

do make sure you use pots big enough for the watering intervals you want to have. bigger pots means less watering. but more water is needed to flush out properly.

.
I'm actually running 3/4 gallon pots in this grow. Very small

do make sure you have run off when watering. about 20-40% is enough.

I do have some run off but only on the pots that are bone dry and I've been feeding 1300-1440 PPM since they were one week into veg. OC of 2.8

do make sure the coco never gets dry - this is a hydro medium. watering often gives better results.

I don't know about that. 90% of my pots are bone dry (almost wilting) by the third day and I've seen no problems with the plants.

 

[MedUser420]

transplant question..when i put a rooted clone into a 16 oz cup of coco. how should i feed and water it? i have been feeding 350 ppms and letting the cup dry out but i think the nutes might be concentrating when the coco gets dry. should i flush?

 

[Carl Carlson]

transplant question..when i put a rooted clone into a 16 oz cup of coco. how should i feed and water it? i have been feeding 350 ppms and letting the cup dry out but i think the nutes might be concentrating when the coco gets dry. should i flush?

350 ppms are not so much, but if you're concerned about or see signs of salt building, you might be do fine just by simply starting to irrigate with some runoff. 10% or so. Or do one plain water flush, followed immediately by a feed. Unless there is a massive, massive salt buildup, than I think you want to avoid intense flushing in the middle of a grow. No harm in testing the ppms of the coco or have you done that already?

fyi, the Pour Through testing method:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/crop/crop_PTS.htm

 

[medical marvel]

man..i have 2 super skunks in 2 gallon coco/perlite. I need to water 2x a day cause they got so big they dry the container out. but they seem to love it.

 

[bigboss415]

I have been searching these forums for a while now for anyone who has experience with the organicare "pure" dry granules and coco cut with perlite as the medium.

The feeding schedule on the organicare says 1 oz of granules (grow or bloom) mixed into the top inch of soil for every gallon of potting soil, every 2 weeks. However, if growing in Coco cut with perlite at 60/40 or 65/35 coco/perlite, would the feeding schedule have to be changed? Does anyone here have any experience with organicare and coco and if there are any special feeding instructions?

Note - The organicare line of potting soil is coco-based, so I'm assuming that it works fine with coco. Just gotta make sure to add the calplex and humex additives!

 

[mexicanweed]

hi , has anyone tried the floralicious of GH or iguana juice??

im thinking to do all the cycle in coco wit floralicious gro , bloom y plus...

 

[dman16]

chopping in 4 days- grown in canna coco and perlite 70/30 in 2 gal smartpots vegged for 2.5 weeks all under a 400w HPS.
fed full CANNA COCO line plus a few things

 

[WeedSavesLives]

Using general hydroponics cocotek coir (any maybe chips?) along with their expanded clay pellets... anyone have mixture suggestions? I want the mix to be easy to re-use, im thinking I don't want to use chips in the mix so it will be easier to separate the roots to re-use the medium. Anyone's suggestions/thoughts?

Oh quick note, this is for a hand watering system

Thanx

 

[mydnytetoker]

Hey there fellow coco growers...I posted this in the "H3ad goes coco" thread but haven't seen a response yet so I copied it here. It goes as follows:

Ok ladies and gentlemen, I have a small issue I need help with. The plants in question are all MVTF from clone. They are all in coco/perlite and hand watered until a little runs off. They are all on full strength 6/9 and usually pH'd to 5.8. I made a slight mistake by getting them too close to the light (400w MH) as you will see in the pics (leaf edges folding up like a taco) but have lowered them back down. My issue appears to be ph. I have been feeding all cuts at 5.8pH and the majority of the plants look awesome except these MVTF's. All NEW growth appears to be twisting. I have 3 cuts and 1 I changed pH to 5.6, another I kept at 5.8 and the last one I changed to 6.0 to see if there is any difference. Any thoughts?

**EDIT**For kicks I tested runoff - 5.6pH 830ppm (from plant fed with 5.8pH) Also, I transplanted and the roots were circling the 1 gal pot and bright white so there is no root rot or fungus.

Heres my specifics:
Mix of RO & Tap to appx 100ppm before adding nutes
After 6ml/gal Micro, 9ml/gal Bloom and a few drops/gal super thrive, pH'd to 5.8 with a total ppm of appx 830. I am going to transplant from 1 gallon pots to 4 gallon pots tonight and they will be ready for flipping and will finish in the 4 gallon pots. Here are the pics:

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

metal god,

This is straight from hydro stores mouth, all three of them for coco.
5mL every watering with cal mag in r/0 water(or cal-mag deficient tap), 10ml every watering if deficient.

I know this post is old, but I can't help but put in my 2 cents worth here. To base ANY decision on what someone at a hydro store tells you is quite chancy. I'm not saying it's all bad, but it's not all good either. You're better off getting your advice here and on you nute manufacturer's website. I go to 3 different stores at various times and I've only encountered 1 person that I felt knew enough to give solid advice (and he's not working there anymore). Regarding getting your advice here, you still need to go cautiously and make sure you're adviser is showing some evidence that he should be giving advice. Check out their grows etc before carving anything in stone. Gather advice, analyze and take action.

mgk

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

@ metal_god69

Here's a thought out of left field....

You know how the manufacturers ALWAYS say to mix your nutes by adding the micro first. I don't know the real science why, but I think if you add the bloom first, then some stuff in the micro gets locked out or precipitates out of solution.

If you are adding the Cal-Mg+ before the micro, maybe try switching it up.

Yeah...crazy idea. But, who knows??

I don't think that's left field at all. I would treat cal-mag as an additive and put it in after the pH adjustment.

mgk